An Awesome night at the Cow Palace

This is Lil Mama and Her Big Daddy Sam! Cute huh!

The roping cattle sorted into some very eloborate pens and chutes.

Ok- ok~ I did go off on a rant about the Cow Palace a few weeks ago. And in truth the attendance was down this year and they cancelled the Sunday Rodeo and added a Mexican Fiesta instead- which in SF will probably bring in a LOT of folks. Geneva Street in SF has a big Mexican population.

But my 'crew'- the Martinez Horsemen- bit the bullet and trekked to the Cow Palace for Saturdays Rodeo.

True to form and keeping with tradition- the drive into the The City was fraught with adventure.( I love using the word fraught in a sentence!) It rained as it always does for Cow Palace. You can count on it. But after an hour and a half in traffic we made it there, got parked and into the building where we had four free tickets waiting for us. MHA had donated the High Point Team Sorting Buckle and we were suppose to present it during the Arena Performance, which my crew was excited about.

 We bought several more tickets and in we went.

Of course some of us had to have an adult beverage right away. ( not me.) And then we went shopping. I didn't get any pictures of the shopping mall but it is a good one.

We were hungry so we went into the 'smorgy-board' grabbed a sandwich and another adult beverage and had dinner. That's Lil Mama pushing food into her mouth. KBG and KW just sitting down.

The Giants Baseball team was playing for the Championship and all of the bars ( which there are three or four) had the game on. The score was getting close. Need I remind you we were in San Francisco home of the Giants and they loves them some base-ball. Crazy doesn't even come close- however we are all also Rodeo  fans and we were there for the Grand National Finals. These Cowboys and Cowgirls would go to the NFR if they won here.

Walking into the Cow Palace arena is always a great feeling for me. I've been going since I was 15 and that is about forty years. I never get tired of the smell of it. Horses, damp dirt, cows...ummmm. They have added a big electronic screen over the chutes, and it has a tendency to distract the horses sometimes, but all in all it is a good thing. We get to watch the replay right away!

The San Francisco Mounted Patrol Color Guard opened the show and it was very moving, to be sure. An 11 year old girl on the brokest horse in the world took center stage and she sang the National Anthem.
I always tear up~

They began bucking broncs right away. They were world class horses! The Flying U Rodeo Contractors have been supplying the stock here for many many years. Cotton Rosser owns and operates it.





This is him- he must be close to eighty.

His grandson Reno was riding and also doing pick up duty.

Cotton actually officially retired last night and turned the Company over to his son at the end of the night.

There were several 'girls' riding rough stock! One of them was Kyla Stra, the lady jockey featured on Jockeys on Animal Planet last year. She rode that horse very well! I think she may have won the girls class even. It was kinda a nice thrill to recognize her and cheer her on.

In the meantime Announcer Bob Tallman kept giving the Giants score and the count. It was getting close!

I wanted to show you a photo of some of the stock and a bay mare that was also one of Cottons brood mares, but blogger is being difficult and not loading pictures very well, and it is getting hard to arrange them - So I'll just tell you- They loaded her big ol colt in the next chute and turned him out when she had finished off her cowboy. They said they wanted to give him the experience of being in the chute so he'll learn his job. Kinda like taking a two year old to a horse show and camping him around.

Then a man right in front of me unexpectedly jumped to his feet and started giving high fives to the people round him. I turned to my niece sitting next to me and said, " The Giants won". Not a minute later Bob Tallman announced it and the Arena erupted in pandemonium! Everyone jumped up and started cheering and whistling. The Bull Fighter 'clown" popped a cork on some champagne and ran around the arena! The Big TV started flashing

Go Giants!

It was wild!

The poor cowboy who won the bull riding was a little lost in the fracas-although he did his victory ride around to a wildly cheering crowd!

The evening ended without us being able to give our buckle to the High Point Rider. We were a little bummed. I received a phone message from the girl running the Sorting that they were still riding, in the rain outside, so they couldn't present the buckle as planned during the show. Bummer!

But all and all it was a good night, a great Rodeo and the Giants won!